ABSTRACT
The beginning of the new perspective toward midwestern archaeology began in 1964 when buried archaeological strata were discovered at Rodgers Shelter in southwestern Missouri. Up to that time, it was routine to regard sterile sediments underlying surface sites as the bottom of the occupation. But, after this discovery, one could no longer be content that this was so, especially with regard to sediments in shelters and on floodplains that have been subject to aggradation since the Pleistocene. What had once been treated as a safe presumption had now to be treated very differently. The so-called sterile layers below an occupation began to be subject to careful reexamination.
